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Tina, Lawyer

Category: Employment Law

Satisfied Customers: 32933

Experience: JD, BBA, recognized by ABA for excellence.

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Recently I was terminated from my position as a bank teller

Customer Question

Recently I was terminated from my position as a bank teller when they did a surprise audit of my drawer and claim that it was short $20. The sudit was done by another teller and not a bank/supervisor and was the only audit done, not third audit was completed or used as a verification. I know for sure that my drawer was in balance and that the person who "audited" did so incorrectly. I was not given the opportunity to verify that I was correct and the bank did o further investigation. I was told that I was terminated on the one audit alone and was terminated by a phone call. No probation, no opportunity to write a statement to defend myself nor did a Human Resource person explain to me the "exact" reason for my termination other than that my drawer was $20 short, according to their audit. As a side note: I am an exemplary teller with no past history of drawer shortages or issues with my skills but recently, a week ago, it was discussed among my co-workers that I was gay. Don't know if that has anything to do with this happening, but if appears very coincidental. Can you advise?

My name is XXXXX XXXXX my goal is to provide you with excellent service today. I am sorry to hear of your difficult situation. Before I can give you an accurate answer to your question, please provide the following additional information:

Where in Missouri were you employed, which city? Have other employees been terminated by such an informal "audit"?

I look forward to assisting you as soon as I have received this information. Thank you.

I live in St Louis - South County area. I worked for PNC Bank in Arnold. To my knowledge, no other employees have been terminated by this "procedure". I have been in this position for a year. I was told by the HR dept that I was one Paid Suspension yesterday while they completed the investigation, then received a call on Friday that they decided to terminate me based on the one audit. I was told not to contact any of the employees at the bank during my "suspension" period yet was receiving texts from some of my co-workers all day, even a text from one who said she as sorry I had been fired - I received that text prior to actually being told I was terminated.

This does sound suspiciously like discrimination based on sexual orientation since the employer learned of your sexual orientation shortly before being terminated in a manner which is usually not used to terminate employees.

However, neither state nor federal law currently protects against this form of discrimination unfortunately. Many states and cities do prohibit discrimination in the workplace based on sexual orientation, but in MO only the cities of St. Louis, Kansas City and Columbia protect against such discrimination. I'm very sorry, this is obviously extremely unfair and the laws are progressing toward prohibiting such discrimination, but you would not be covered while working in Arnold, MO.

If you had an employment contract and the employer breached it, or they violated their own policies, that could provide grounds to allege actual or implied breach of contract. If that is not the situation, then the employment at will doctrine would typically govern this situation and you would have no recourse, although I would apply for unemployment benefits under these circumstances.

I hope this helps clarify the situation for you. Please remember to rate my service once you have all the information you need so I will be compensated for my time from the deposit you posted with this website. If you have any other questions, please ask me – I’ll be happy to respond. Thank you!

Thank you very much for your positive rating of my service, Andrea. It has been my pleasure to assist you and I hope you will ask for me should a future legal need arise. I noticed that you provided me with an "OK" rating. I strive to provide excellent service to every customer, so please let me know if there is any additional information I can provide you to increase your level of satisfaction with my service.

Thanks again and all the best to you.

Tina

Note: Please feel free to request me if you have future legal questions by typing your new question in the question box on my profile page. Here is a link to that page, which you can bookmark or add to your favorites: http://www.justanswer.com/law/expert-tina/. I look forward to hearing from you again should the need arise.

I will tell you that...the things you have to go through to be an Expert are quite rigorous.

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